Sensing the scent of death: modulation of microRNAs by curcumin in gastrointestinal cancers

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers with a high incidence rate and adverse complications are related to severe morbidity and mortality around the world. MicroRNAs (miRs) are potential regulators of cellular events, and their aberrant expression occurs in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Increasing evidence demonstrates that plant derived-natural compounds are capable of regulation of miRs in cancer therapy. Curcumin is a naturally occurring nutraceutical compound isolated from curcuma longa and possesses valuable pharmacological activities in which anti-tumor activity is of importance, since in suppressing cancer malignancy, curcumin can target various molecular pathways such as STAT3, PTEN, PI3K/Akt, Wnt, and so on. In the present review, our aim is to shed some light on regulation of miRs by curcumin in GI cancers, and demonstrate how regulation of miRs by curcumin can affect proliferation and metastasis of GI cancers. Noteworthy, curcumin affects down-stream targets such as PTEN, VEGFA, PI3K/Akt and so on that are responsible for growth and migration of GI cancers via regulation of miRs. Affected miRs, and their down-stream targets are discussed in this review in a mechanistic way. Besides, challenges for clinical translation of current studies are described